Six year olds not safe, alone, in the US!!!!!

I don't know, but people talk about all the perils of the modern world, and how everything's so much worse and so much more dangerous, these days, when the reality is that (over here, anyway) the number of child abductions and assaults on children is actually lower than it was in the 1930's, and very gradually declines further, decade by decade.

(I think they're the same people who blame industrial societies and pollution for the incidence of diseases which were actually more common centuries ago.)

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100%? NOPE! But I was able to be out alone. I don't think anyone worried. I've seen kids take videos that weren't that old, and they were FARTHER away from home than THESE kids! The odd thing is that the NEIGHBOR was worse than the fear.

Steve

When I was 5 (1969) I used to walk to school by myself. It wasn't all that far, but it wasn't just across the street either.

I don't know if that means things were safer then, or that because the internet and mass media wasn't around then like it is today to scare the shit out of everyone, we simply weren't all that aware of the dangers.

I guess the "awareness" thing changes you because when my kids were 5 I would not have ever let them walk to school by themselves...

You are talking about a place you've never been and don't understand. Go somewhere else

The "gun culture" isn't what we're talking about. Children being safe is what we're talking about. Note that the leading cause of death for children up to 14 years old isn't guns. It's accidents, followed by disease. If you don't like the US culture, by all means, don't come here.

Leading causes of death
1-4 years of age

Accidents (unintentional injuries)
Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities

5-14 years of age

Accidents (unintentional injuries)
Cancer
Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr62/nvsr62_06.pdf

What on earth does gun control have to do with a child playing outside by himself?

Do you realize that in some cases it only takes an offer of candy, or an ice cream to entice an innocent, trusting child into a strange vehicle? No gun needed, duh!

Cool, I never want to see you here, keep walking on your own carpet.


Terra

NO THEY CAN'T!

Do you know who has been named the salesperson of the YEAR of guns in several STATES!?!?!?!?

OK OK, FORGET what THIS company says! Hot Off The Wire - Idaho Gun Manufacturer Announces

NOPE! Obama - firearms salesperson of the year | US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

Maybe you should look at REALITY!

Steve

I guess I am the Product of too many " Americas Most Wanted" and "Datelines " cause there is no way I even let my oldest daughter 5( will be 6 in November) out even in our driveway unsupervised.

No way !!

Call me overprotective or whatever. I do not give a sh*t.


Whether abductions happens today more than it did 50 or 100 years ago, who knows ??

Frankly, that is irrelevant to me !!

There have been crazy people since the dawn of time, There will continue to be crazy people in the foreseeable future.


btw, I sure ain't apologizing for watching too many Datelines

The thing is it can literally take just seconds for an Abduction to happen.

Seconds and a Lifetime of utter HELL that is indescribable

The Risk / Reward is way too high for me.

So let me see..I am just gonna let me kid have some confidence of being a 'big' person and having a little independence by letting him be alone 150 yards from my house.

Hell No ! Maybe the CPS stuff is over kill in this situation. ( Actually it is and the neighbor was a @#$! )

But just as a parent to another parent ,150 yards is probably longer than most people think.

It is a football field and a half. Good grief


And I do not care if you can see your 6 year old from the Porch.

So what are you going to yell from your Porch " Hey Mr. Crazy excuse me but that is my kid so please do not put him in your car because I can see you from a football field and half away "

Ironic thing is Mom didn't even yell when this overzealous neighbor came up to her son convinced him to go with her and show up at her door. Matter of fact Mom never even saw this neighborly woman do any of that with her Son until he showed up at front door.

Thats weird isn't it ? Then you could raise the question was this Mom being a good parent in this situation ?

This strange neighbor could have been a sicko but Mom was too busy to keep an eye out and see this interaction between the strange neighbor and her kid in progress.

I have to admit I think the whole CPS was ridiculous.

Although I would not agree with what this woman did, it hardly makes her a bad parent.

I bet that the woman who reported it was not a parent.

I remember a few months after our oldest daughter was born we were in a grocery store out in Palm Springs and La Quinta area.

When were in the bread section, my wife and I just turned our backs briefly to get some bread and our baby was sitting in the front of the grocery cart probably not 10 feet away.

After I got back, I noticed this couple off to our side just staring at us.

I did not think much of it.Maybe I thought they we were just admiring what a young good looking family we were lol

But seconds later they came over.

The guy in his mid twenties said that he worked in a hospital and had been in the middle of abuse situations and domestic problems in family cases.

And that it alarmed his poor little self that my wife and I turned our backs on our baby for a few seconds. And that we should be more careful and be cognizant of our surroundings because bad things can happen.

I literally looked at him without saying a word and rolled my eyes and proceeded down the aisle without muttering a thing

I think he got the picture of what I thought about him by my complete lack of acknowledgement that words were actually coming from his mouth.

Your younger years sound much like mine, Sal. We called our neighborhood "the block," but it was actually more of a circle. Lots of kids that would end up in someone else's backyard for most of the day and parents just automatically looked after the bunch. The few of us that were the first to get cable would be the homes for afternoon television (Speed Racer, Banana Splits, Ultraman, Gilligan's Island, etc.).

We would meet up with each other and spend the day at the pond which was right across the street from my house, or we would head over to "the trails" at the other side of the neighborhood (a wooded area that kids had blazed actual trails through). There was a small dump hidden in the woods at the end of the street that was always fun to explore. We would spend nights at each other's homes, camp out in each other's backyards, play chase, have watergun fights and other games that covered the entire neighborhood. When the porch lights started coming on, everyone knew it was time to go home (but you always waited until the folks started clicking the light on and off before you actually went home).

We didn't have air conditioning in those days, so it wasn't uncommon for us to sleep in the living room with the front door wide open except for the screen door. Or we would sleep in our rooms with fans in the windows that were easy to get in and out of. Less than ten years old and we were easily sneaking in and out of our house through the windows late at night and sitting in our front yard or someone else's with other kids.

We spent a good bit of time in the local theaters, one more than the others because it was in walking distance. We'd walk to the miniature golf course, the bowling alley, the mall. A couple of friends and I would ride our bikes into town every few weeks or so to the newsstand. The two old guys, probably the same age as I am now, would let us sit beside the comic racks and read comics all afternoon. They also had a great selection of current and classic novels. That's where my love for reading really took root, and where I bought my first paperbacks of War of the Worlds, Journey to the Center of the Earth and stacks of others for just a buck or two each. When we were done we would go next door to the little diner for cokes and burgers. Then we would explore Woolworth's or one of the local music shops.

Shame my kids never got to experience that same kind of adventure. Much different world by the time they came along.

Yeah, I obfuscate enough too. Even so, I may be at my home any time, and there is no telling how I would react. And I try to obfuscate all my business. But you can only go so far. HECK. At this point, I am even thinking about every device being a third party because, TODAY, it actually IS!

Your PHONE and computer are multiple third parties that can, at any moment, betray you. If not a virus, then an app or program. If none of those, a date and lon/lat stamp imbedded in the metadata of a picture. If not that, then the server log of a site you visit. If not that, then the server log of a site that is visited by a site you visit. I wonder how many sites knowingly or unknowingly give google information about you. If they advertise, show a picture from, login using, or have a special link going to google or ANY property, such as youtube, or link to a site that does, chances are that google gets info.

THAT, IN ITSELF, is a scary thought. YEAH, the world is less safe, for ALL! I still think kids should be given SOME freedom.

Steve